MORINGA OLEIFERA LEAF POWDER FOR TYPE 2 DIABETES: A PILOT CLINICAL TRIAL

Background: Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae) leaves are commonly used for diabetes in Mali. This pilot clinical study aimed to evaluate its effect on post-prandial blood glucose in preparation for a larger trial. Methods: Diabetic patients and non-diabetic healthy volunteers (35 each) were asked to fast for 13 hours on three occasions. Blood glucose was measured before and after eating 100g of white bread (at 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 minutes). On their second and third study visits, they were given 1g and 2g respectively, of M. oleifera leaf powder, 30 minutes after eating the bread.  The mean paired reduction in blood glucose at each time interval and the incremental area under the curve were calculated. Results: Ingestion of Moringa powder had no effect on blood glucose in non-diabetic participants, but in diabetic patients, it lowered blood glucose at 90 minutes. There was a trend towards lower incremental area under the curve when diabetic patients took 2g of Moringa. No side-effects were reported by any participant. Conclusions: Moringa oleifera leaf powder reduced post-prandial glycaemia in diabetic patients. A larger study is needed to define the optimal dose and to assess whether this translates into longer-term benefits

Polar organic chemical integrative sampler (POCIS) uptake rates for 17 polar pesticides and degradation products: laboratory calibration

International audiencePolar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS) are useful for monitoring a wide range of chemicals, including polar pesticides, in water bodies. However, few calibration data are available, which limits the use of these samplers for time-weighted average concentration measurements in an aquatic medium. This work deals with the laboratory calibration of the pharmaceutical configuration of a polar organic chemical integrative sampler (pharm-POCIS) for calculating the sampling rates of 17 polar pesticides (1.15 ≤ logK ow ≤ 3.71) commonly found in water. The experiment, conducted for 21 days in a continuous water flow-through exposure system, showed an integrative accumulation of all studied pesticides for 15 days. Three compounds (metalaxyl, azoxystrobine, and terbuthylazine) remained integrative for the 21-day experiment. The sampling rates measured ranged from 67.9 to 279 mL day−1 and increased with the hydrophobicity of the pesticides until reaching a plateau where no significant variation in sampling rate is observed when increasing the hydrophobicity

Study of Chemcatcher® kinetic uptake for herbicide: batch experiment and flow laboratory calibration

International audienceThe widespread use of pesticides in agriculture activities leads to the contamination of surface and ground waters caused by drift, runoff, drainage, and leaching of soils. The pollution of water by pesticides is an issue of environmental concern, owing to the increasing number of pesticides detected in water and to the establishment of directives such as Directive 2000/60/EC which defined a framework for the protection of waters bodies. A number of pesticides belonging to the classes of phenylureas, triazines and chloroacetanilides, are mentioned as priority substances. Passive sampling techniques, which rely on the diffusion of pollutants from the sampled medium to a receiving phase, have gained in popularity because they can provide time-weighted average (TWA) concentrations of pollutants when used in integrative mode. Since these devices accumulate pollutants over a period of time, they can, depending on the compound-dependent sampling rate, provide a preconcentration of analytes, thus enabling the detection of compounds present in the water at very low levels that are not always detected in grab samples of water. In order to calculate the TWA concentration of a pollutant in water, it is necessary to measure the mass of analyte accumulated in the sampler, the deployment time, and to know the corresponding sampling rate Rs. The latter is determined, in particular for Chemcatcher®, in laboratory scale calibration experiments, where the samplers are exposed for a defined time to a constant analyte concentration in water. This work aims to compare the sampling rate Rs obtained through flow pilot calibration and batch experiments for 20 polar herbicides. The uptake of herbicides by the Chemcatcher® (C18 as receiving phase and PES membrane) has been determined by the both methods. Based on a kinetic approach two methods of calculating Rs are proposed; one based on batch experiments, and the other on through flow laboratory calibration. The results of the batch experiment are in good agreement to those of flow laboratory calibration and the former approach has the advantage of simplifying the calibration procedure for determining Rs. However, since hydrodynamic conditions can vary widely in the field, caution is needed when using laboratory based calibration data in deployments

Moringa oleifera leaf powder for type 2 diabetes: a pilot clinical trial

Background:Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae) leaves are commonly used for diabetes in Mali. This pilot clinical study aimed to evaluate its effect on post-prandial blood glucose in preparation for a larger trial. Methods:Diabetic patients and non-diabetic healthy volunteers (35 each) were asked to fast for 13 hours on three occasions. Blood glucose was measured before and after eating 100g of white bread (at 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 minutes). On their second and third study visits, they were given 1g and 2g respectively of M. oleifera leaf powder, 30 minutes after eating the bread. We calculated the mean paired reduction in blood glucose at each time interval and the incremental area under the curve. Results:Ingestion of Moringa powder had no effect on blood glucose in non-diabetic participants, but in diabetic patients, it lowered blood glucose at 90 minutes. There was a trend towards lower incremental area under the curve when diabetic patients took 2g of Moringa. No side-effects were reported by any participants. Conclusions:Moringa oleifera leaf powder reduced post-prandial glycaemia in diabetic patients. A larger study is needed to define the optimal dose and to assess whether this translates into longer-term benefits

Using modeling, satellite images and existing global datasets for rapid preliminary assessments of renewable energy resources: The case of Mali

This paper presents a novel approach to the preliminary, low-cost, national-scale mapping of wind energy, solar energy and certain categories of bio-energy resources in developing countries, using Mali as an example. The methods applied make extensive use of satellite remote sensing and meteorological mesoscale modeling. The paper presents first results from applying the methodology in Mali and discusses the appropriateness of the results obtained. It is shown that northern Mali has considerable wind energy potential, while average wind speeds in the southern part are too low to make wind power a competitive option. Solar energy resources are shown to be abundant in all of Mali, though the highest values are found in the south. The temporal variation is relatively limited. Bio-energy resources are also concentrated in the south, but there are small pockets of high vegetation productivity in the irrigated areas of the Niger inland delta that might be interesting from a renewable energy resource perspective. Finally, the paper discusses the role that renewable energy resources might play in the energy systems of Mali, given the spatio-temporal distribution of renewable energy resources. It is argued that at the current price of about 70 US$/barrel for fossil fuels, renewable energy resources are becoming economically as well as environmentally attractive options.Renewable energy resources Mali Satellite images Modeling